first week!

Hi everyone!


I only get to use the internet when i come into the city so sorry for the delay! My first week has been great!! The first two days we were here we stayed in a hotel in Arusha and got to go to really fun, yummy dinners. The second day we were here, we all went on a nine hour hike through some masai (tradiditional tribe here) villages, a rainforest, an alpine forest, up a river, and finally to this BEAUTIFUL waterfall. I was in fern gully/ avatar LOVING every minute. Its rainy season here so its pretty chilly/wet all the time- complete opposite of what I thought!

We then were taken to an agricultural college up in the rain forest about 45 minutes out of town which is where I have been for the past week or so. Its been a pretty intense/packed orientation where we have swahili school in the morning and then HIV/AIDS (the progression, transmission, prevention, and general biology of it) lessons/lectures in the afternoon. Its incredibly interesting- I've never learned so much in this short of time!! Yesterday we had an HIV positive person come in from the community and it was one of the most powerful experiences I've had here so far. It can be such a devastating illness, yet the people here have an amazing hope. We basically have to learn all about HIV in order to teach in the schools when we move to our villages (which we go to next week!)

Our afternoons are rad- we go for runs/walks through the nearby villages and buy fresh fruit (they have the BEST bananas and avocados AND donutss- everyone thought I was going to come back an emaciated skinny girl- I think it will be the opposite! However, the food we are fed is VERY repetitive. RICE RICE RICE. So today we are in the city and I will be getting a big fat cheeseburger and milkshake.

Next week we will move into our ward that is composed of 20,000 people divided amongst 6 villages. I will be living in a homestay of one of the villages with 3 other american volunteers, and 2 tanzanian teaching partners (who are SO RAD. They are all our age (20-24), fluent in swahili and english in order to translate our teachings to the little kids in primary schools. I have had such a great time getting to know all of them and can't wait to spend the rest of my 7 weeks here with them.


LOVE you all!

xoxo
Court